Industry News
Retail Reinvention means Long Live Brick-and-Mortar Retail
“Digital competitors have transformed the traditional retail business and exerted extreme pressure on brick-and-mortar retailers who seem to have lost the connection to their customers.”
Instead of desperately trying to defeat pure players on their battlefield, brick-and-mortar retailers should take advantage of their function as a customer interface.
They have to understand that in most cases, the customer journey begins in the real environment. The first touch point and first brand contact happens in brick-and-mortar retail stores. It is at these points where retailers have to create strong, memorable and positive brand experiences.
A recent Vivaldi study* revealed that there are four imperatives for retail reinvention:
- Understand your role – brick-and-mortar retailers must be more than a mere point of purchase
- Intensify strengths – brick-and-mortar retailers must exploit their inherent strengths
- Use technological progress – brick-and-mortar retailers must integrate digital tools, they have to unlock the opportunities that technological advancements provide
- Let one-plus-one be three – brick-and-mortar retailers must build an interface between their online and offline channels
By combining the best of two worlds, some of the world’s best-known online e-commerce brands have created a seamless online – in-store experience for consumers. It is evident that these industry leaders will not stop here.
Thus, the motto for brick-and-mortar retailers must be “now or never”.
